1. Field of the Invention
An aspect of the present invention relates to an information storage medium, and more particularly, to an information storage medium that can improve compatibility, and a recording/reproducing apparatus and method using the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
Since standards for optical systems including an optical disk drive system and optical disks were initially established, new functions have been frequently added to the optical systems due to developments in optical disks and semiconductor technology. Therefore, the initially established standards need to be updated.
FIG. 1 is a reference diagram illustrating a problem according to the prior art.
Referring to FIG. 1, a conventional standard is referred to as an “old standard” and a standard updated by adding new functions to the old standard is referred to as a “new standard.” Thus, an old standard disk 12 is operates in an old standard drive system 11, and a new standard disk 14 operates in a new standard drive system 13.
The old standard and the new standard may or may not have recording/reproducing compatibility due to the new added functions. If the two standards have the recording/reproducing compatibility, the old standard disk 12 can be recorded/reproduced in the new standard drive system 13 and that the new standard disk 14 can be recorded/reproduced in the old standard drive system 11.
To guarantee recording/reproducing compatibility between the old standard and the new standard, when the new standard disk 14 having the new functions is loaded into the old standard drive system 11, the old standard drive system 11 should recognize the new functions. To do this, when the old standard is established, it is necessary to define a proper procedure for adding new functions. This proper countermeasure should be equally applicable to any new standard when new functions are added.
For a series of standards to maintain recording/reproducing compatibility, the addition of new functions should be taken into account when an initial standard is established. To do this, a rule by which a current drive system should operate according to functions covered by a current standard and a rule by which the current drive system should operate according to functions to be added in the future, which are not covered by the current standard, should be defined. That is, when a new standard is established by adding new functions to the current standard, if a drive system according to the new standard stores on a disk an operation that a drive system according to the current standard should perform according to the new functions, even if a new disk to which the new functions are added is loaded into the drive system according to the current standard, the drive system according to the current standard can read information stored in the new disk and perform the operation according to the new functions. In other words, there is needed a method by which a drive system according to a new standard can inform a drive system according to a current standard how to operate a new disk to which new functions are added even though the drive system according to the current standard does not know what the new functions added to the new standard are.